


Thankful for You

by ryanthepowerbottomguy



Series: Soft Jeremwood Holidays [1]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Thanksgiving, mentioned Homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-09-02 00:18:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8643814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryanthepowerbottomguy/pseuds/ryanthepowerbottomguy
Summary: Jeremy takes Ryan to Boston for Thanksgiving.





	

**Author's Note:**

> hope y'all have had a good thanksgiving (or a good thursday, if you're not american), and I hope you've been with people who love and accept you.

“So,” Jeremy starts, one night in late August, as Ryan climbs into bed beside him. “My mom called today.”

“Everything okay?” Ryan murmurs, cuddling up close so he can rest his head on Jeremy’s thigh. Jeremy shifts his phone to one hand so he scroll through his twitter feed while petting Ryan’s hair with the other. Ryan hums in pleasure and closes his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah. She just wanted to know what my Thanksgiving plans were. Reminded me that if I wanted to come up I should get my tickets soon-ish.”

“Oh,” Ryan says quietly. Jeremy looks down to find that Ryan has his eyes squeezed closed. He looks… upset.

“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” Jeremy says. “She likes for me to come visit every so often, but if you’d already made plans or something, that’s okay.”

“No, I…” Ryan swallows heavily. Jeremy isn’t sure what’s eating at Ryan until Ryan asks, in a very small voice, “She’d be okay with me? Coming with you, that is?”

Oh. _Oh_. Jeremy’s heart breaks a little at the worry in Ryan’s voice.

“Of course she would be, buddy,” Jeremy says, moving to pull Ryan even closer to his side. “They all would be. She keeps talking about how she wants to meet you in person.”

Jeremy isn’t entirely sure what Ryan’s relationship with his mom is like, but he can take a guess from what he’s gleaned from Ryan’s end of their phone conversations. She doesn’t know that Ryan and Jeremy are dating. She thinks Ryan moved into this house all by himself. He talks to her about the dogs a lot, like they’re the only other living thing in the house. He keeps insisting that he’s happy being single. After those kinds of calls, Ryan always crawls into Jeremy’s lap and holds Jeremy’s hand for a long time. Jeremy never knows what to say to him. He never went through what Ryan apparently still is. His parents have never had a problem with him being gay.

“Okay,” Ryan says quietly. There’s still uncertainty in his voice. “Cool. If you’re sure they’d be okay with it, I’d like to go with you for Thanksgiving.”

“Definitely,” Jeremy says. “I’ll book our tickets tomorrow. You think Jack and Caiti will be willing to look after the animals while we’re gone?”

—

They land at Logan late on the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving. Ryan has been half-asleep the entire trip — flights just do that to him — and he’d spent several hours resting on Jeremy’s shoulder even though that must have been at least a little uncomfortable.

“Time to move,” Jeremy murmurs, shaking Ryan until he opens his eyes, and Jeremy glances around quickly (force of habit) before he leans in to peck Ryan on the cheek.

Ryan becomes more and more awake as they move toward baggage claim, and more and more unsure. Jeremy’s chest hurts at how apparently, no matter his reassurances, Ryan is still afraid to meet Jeremy’s parents. When Jeremy slips his hand into Ryan’s on the escalator down, Ryan’s palm is clammy.

Jeremy’s mom and dad meet them by the baggage carousel with open arms. Ryan stands off to the side while Jeremy’s mom kisses Jeremy on the cheek, but when she turns toward Ryan he gives her a small smile. It widens into something delighted and relieved when she pulls him down to give him a hug.  Jeremy smiles wide as he watches Ryan’s shoulders relax.

—

Ryan jumps when they step out of the airport into the cold air. “ _Christ_ ,” he mutters, pulling the hoodie Jeremy insisted he put on tighter around him. “Fuck fuck fuck, it’s cold.”

Jeremy laughs. “Told you it would be,” he says. It’s cold, yeah, but Jeremy is more used to it than Ryan is, even after over a year in Austin.

“Don’t laugh at me, I didn’t grow up in some cold hellscape,” Ryan says. “Shut up.”

—

Even as late as it is, the drive back to Jeremy’s parents’ house takes over half an hour. Ryan spends the drive staring out the window, and Jeremy smiles. Even at nearly midnight, Boston ain’t a bad city to look at. At some point Ryan reaches out and interlaces their fingers on the seat between them.

As they drive Jeremy and his parents catch up a little — they talk about how hectic the airports were, how work has been recently, how the cats and dogs are. Ryan doesn’t contribute much, but Jeremy didn’t figure he would.

Ryan is obviously flagging by the time they get to the house, and Jeremy can only smile at how cute Ryan is half-asleep. It probably helps that he’s too tired to be anxious. Not even the cold seems to be able to really wake him up.

“Thanks for picking us up,” Ryan murmurs around a yawn as Jeremy grabs their backpacks and suitcases. “You didn’t have to.”

“It wasn’t a problem,” Jeremy’s dad replies. “We put some clean sheets on the bed in your old room, Jeremy. You two should go get some rest.”

Jeremy smiles and nudges Ryan toward the front door. “C’mon, sleepy. We’re upstairs.”

—

Jeremy’s room is much as he left it after he moved out. There’s a couple storage containers pushed into the corner — Christmas decorations, it looks like — and the comforter is something plain that his mom probably bought after he took his old one, but otherwise it’s all there. His high school gymnastics trophies are still gleaming from their place on his dresser, which means someone came in to dust them at some point. He’s sure that if he opened his closet he’d find old clothes that don’t fit him anymore. It’s comfortably warm in the room, thankfully. Jeremy doesn’t want to entertain the thought of a cold room.

Ryan slips out of his shoes and jeans before flopping down onto the bed. It’s nearly one in the morning now and it’s been a long day, and Jeremy wants nothing more than to join him, but.

Jeremy pokes him. “Go brush your teeth, babe.”

Ryan whines and burrows deeper into the sheets.

“Suit yourself,” Jeremy says. “But I’m not kissing you in the morning if you have awful morning breath.” Ryan doesn’t react to that, so Jeremy heads down the hall to the bathroom by himself.

When he gets back, Ryan has fallen asleep on top of the comforter, and Jeremy has to pull the sheets out from under his heavy ass. Ryan mutters but doesn’t fully wake up. Jeremy climbs into bed and wraps himself around Ryan’s back, and Ryan relaxes against him.

—

The day before Thanksgiving passes peacefully. Jeremy’s sister arrives around noon with her family, so the house is suddenly even more full of people. Ryan is polite if reserved around everybody, like he’s still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Jeremy doesn’t know how to reassure him that it won’t.

At some point Jeremy’s three-year-old nephew latches on to Ryan’s leg and Ryan laughs and picks him up and carries him around on his hip for at least an hour, answering the kid’s questions and talking to him. Jeremy watches from the couch as Ryan chats with him, heart swelling with affection. There aren’t a lot of kids around the office, for obvious reasons, and Jeremy had never realized how _good_ with kids Ryan is.

It makes him start thinking. Yeah, they bought a house together and moved in together a few months ago, but they haven’t really talked about anything beyond that yet. It hits him, suddenly, that he would love to marry Ryan, spend the rest of their lives together. Watching Ryan play with his nephew makes Jeremy want to see that around their own house. He’d never really considered kids, but now… he wants that with Ryan.

He resolves to start putting aside a portion of his paychecks once they get back to Austin. By the time spring rolls around he’ll definitely have enough saved up for a ring. Ryan deserves something nice.

Ryan looks up, face radiant with happiness, when Jeremy stands up and moves over to him. His smile goes soft and Jeremy can’t help but lean in and pull Ryan down into a chaste kiss. Ryan makes a small noise of surprise but kisses back for a moment. None of Jeremy’s family gives a shit, and Ryan seems to finally be realizing that. Then the kid launches himself into Uncle Jeremy’s arms and Jeremy nearly topples over at the sudden weight.

—

Ryan makes a last-minute run to the grocery store Wednesday evening with Jeremy’s mom, and he comes back red-cheeked from the cold and with his brow creased in confusion.

“It’s so dark out,” Ryan says. “It’s not even six yet, what the fuck.”

Jeremy shrugs. “Welcome to Boston in winter, buddy.”

“It sucks,” Ryan says. He’s pouting and it’s kind of adorable. “Let’s never move here.”

Jeremy can’t help but laugh and lean up to kiss Ryan’s cold cheek.

—

Unsurprisingly, Ryan nearly eats himself sick during Thanksgiving dinner. It’s a huge affair, and really too much food for just the seven of them, but the table is loud and happy and Jeremy wouldn’t have it any other way.

Jeremy has never really liked the whole tradition of going around and publicly giving your thanks for the year — especially when the year has been shitty — but this year, this year he holds Ryan’s hand and tells him how thankful he is to have gotten the job at Rooster Teeth, because without it he wouldn’t have met the man he’s in love with.

Ryan’s blushing when he says, “I’m — I’m thankful for Jeremy, and all our friends, and. And for y’all, for letting me come up. I haven’t had a Thanksgiving with a family in y-years, really, and it means more to me than I can express that you’ve been so kind.”

Jeremy hadn’t known that — before, he’d always insinuated that he went to Georgia for holidays — but all his reactions make a lot more sense now. Jeremy squeezes Ryan’s hand as his sister starts talking, and Ryan squeezes back tightly.

—

That night they cuddle close — it got even colder tonight and the radiator hasn’t quite caught up yet — and Ryan tells Jeremy how the last time he went home for a holiday he was threatened into not bringing his boyfriend at the time, even though it was serious, because his mom didn’t want anyone else in town to know or see, how he had stopped going at all because their judgements and pointed questions about girlfriends got to be too much. Jeremy doesn’t want to imagine what growing up in that house must have been like. He’s just glad Ryan is out of there, and in Jeremy’s arms.

“I didn’t… I don’t know,” Ryan murmurs. “I don’t want to make it seem like I was doubting your family’s kindness or anything, I wasn’t, but…”

“But the only experience you’d had was bad, so you couldn’t wrap your mind around a good one,” Jeremy says. “I get that.”

“Thanks,” Ryan says in a small voice, burrowing closer to Jeremy’s side. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Jeremy says. “So fuckin much.”

“I want to be able to take you to Georgia to meet my mom one day,” Ryan says. “She’s… she’s a good person, underneath everything. But she wouldn’t appreciate you. She doesn’t deserve to know you. But I wish I could.”

“Maybe one day,” Jeremy says, kissing the top of Ryan’s head. His heart aches, and no matter what Ryan says, Jeremy wants to go down to Georgia and give Ryan’s mom a piece of his mind. She doesn’t deserve a son as wonderful as Ryan.

—

Jeremy’s parents drive them to the airport early Saturday, so they can have a day to themselves before they head back to work on Monday. It was nice to see everybody, but Jeremy is looking forward to warmer temperatures and the animals.

“Are you going to come home for Christmas?” Jeremy’s mom asks as they pull up to the terminal, and Jeremy can see Ryan go pale at the thought of more cold weather.

“We’ll see,” Jeremy says. He already has the bare bones of a plan for Christmas, one involving him and Ryan and maybe the promise of a ring. He’ll have to see how the next month works out.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm also [ryanthepowerbottomguy](http://ryanthepowerbottomguy.tumblr.com) over on tumblr! come say hi!


End file.
